Rqfinesque's Flora Telluriana. 289 



SchomMrgk'm crispa Lindl.,' t, 10. A very handsome genus 

 apparently confined to British Guiana, where two species have 

 been discovered by M. Schomburgk, a zealous naturalist, after 

 whom they are named. The genus is nearly allied to Epiden- 

 drum, from which it is distinguished by its large spathaceous 

 bracts. {Sert. Orch., t. 10.) 



Considering the number of plates given in each part, and the 

 exquisitely beautiful manner in which they are got up, this splen- 

 did work may really he considered as cheap. 



Art. III. Flora Telluriana. By Professor Rafinesque. Parts I. 

 and II. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1836. 



This work, it is stated, will be completed in six parts, and will 

 include 2000 new genera and species, with many new natural 

 orders and families. It is intended as a sequel to the New Flora 

 of North America, and as the completion of the author's nume- 

 rous botanical works. He next contemplates publishing the 

 genera of fossil plants, the primitive types of our actual vege- 

 tation ; and, as a " subsequent sequel," Fauna Telluriana, or a 

 synopsis of the new animals, living and fossil, observed or as- 

 certained between 1796 and 1836. 



Part I. contains an Introduction, in which the author states his 

 own peculiar opinions on different subjects connected with botany, 

 and speaks of his labours for the advancement of the science in 

 Italy and the South of France, from 1796 to 1802; in North 

 America, from 1802 to 1804 ; in Italy and Sicily, from 1805 to 

 1815 ; in Spain and the Azores, in 1815 ; and in North America, 

 from Canada and Boston to the Mississippi and the Apalachian 

 Mountains, from 1816 to 1836. He concludes by observing, 

 that this work " is, perhaps, the first ever published in America 

 on classical botany," and that it " will be a mine of botanical 

 knowledge to those willing to avail themselves of such help any 

 where." (p. 25.) Much as the author has written, he is seldom 

 quoted by his contemporaries ; but, whether this is solely owing 

 to his own speculations, or their prejudices, we shall not venture 

 to decide. It will be singular, if there is not something good in 

 the writings of a man who has seen so much, and who is so en- 

 thusiastically devoted to the subject on which he writes. After 

 the introduction, a table of new natural families is given; and 

 the subject of natural arrangement occupies the remainder of 

 Part I. 



Part II. commences with explanations of botanical terms, a 

 list of abbreviations, &c. ; and we have next the characters of 

 genera, which are carried as far as genus 400., Aloysia Ortega. 



Vol. XIV. — No. 99. u 



